Had to do some ABS printing this weekend, was concerned about bed adhesion since I’ve removed my Kapton tape. My PrintrBot+ bed doesn’t want to go above 80deg and the prints don’t want to stick to the bare aluminum even with hairspray or glue sticks. So I tried blue painters tape, but ABS warped immediately, so I ended up using blue painters tape with a good application of my glue stick and it works perfectly!
My Kapton tape was pretty beat up and even with glue sticks or hairspray ABS always warped a bit, and painters tape didn’t stick very well to it. What I’ve found is, painters tape (especially blue) sticks much better to bare aluminum. I was thinking of getting Buildtak but I’m having great luck with painters tape on my aluminum bed, going to try a large ABS part next to see if it can handle that.
Hmm… if the heated bed can’t get enough temp, might be time to consider a higher voltage heating element and do a relay/SSR/etc. to control the bed from the printrboard. My Simple Metal’s heated bed struggles to reach 80C. Part of it, I’m sure, is because the whole aluminum bed acts like a large heat sink. Been wondering it makes sense for me to replace it with a 24V or even AC powered module(if AC, definitely a silicone covered one to avoid issues).
@Scottie_D369 I’m in the same boat, I usually try to avoid it if at all possible, but I couldn’t in this case and was pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out.
You could add insulation to the bottom of the bed if there’s room. A good insulator is melamine foam, AKA magic eraser. Slice it thin, 6-12mm or so and glue the sheets on the bottom.
We just redesigned the heatbed and it now goes to 100C. I could send some demos out, but need to double check the hole pattern. Maybe you would consider paying shipping?
If you are in this boat, email me - Brook at Printrbot with address and I’ll set up a coupon or something do you can get a replacement and just pay shipping.
@Brook_Drumm is the redesigned bed available for the Printrbot Simple Metal? Would definitely be awesome if I can get the print bed to get past 80C. If it’s available for the Simple Metal, I’m interested in giving it a go.
@Brook_Drumm is this different than the heater in the store now (with the heating elements near the bed rather than on the opposite side of the PCB)? I finally gave up on 12V heaters and went with a 500W AC heater and a SSR. 25->110C in 2 minutes.
